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Saturday, February 04, 2012

IMPORTANT - Spread the Word, Buy, or Donate

Hey wanted to point something out here. Steve encouraged me to post this after I had encouraged some of my other friends in the same way.

Being in a band is not cheap and although we aren't complaining about it, we could realize so much more of our artistic vision with just a little bit more support. You might be wondering how you fit in to that.

Here's how: Either spread the word, buy some Otisburg stuff, or donate to us.

It's really that simple!

This is especially important if you liked what you heard on Born Yesterday or support punk in general. Don't let it be a "dying scene," do something about it!

Here are the specifics.

Spread the Word
Even though the rereleased Born Yesterday EP is out on Suburban Empire Records and being sold on iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby, etc for a cheap $4.99, you can also get a free copy at the Otisburg bandcamp page.

The main way you should spread the word is download that and get it out there. Email it to all your friends. Post links to it from your Facebook/Myspace/Twitter/Google+/etc. Tell people about it. Burn it on CDs and hand it out after local shows. Make sure it gets out there!

If you already have it, buy it anyway just to support us. Or buy it as a gift for someone.

You can also buy shirts and other merch! We hardly mention this but it's true. Go check that out now. Wearing one of our shirts around will also help spread the word!

When you buy stuff, the money will help us create a much better release next time. We're already in the middle of recording stuff for the next release, and we are incurring expenses. That's okay, we do it because we love it. But guess what? To do a proper release will cost some money above and beyond what we have the means for right now. Studio time is not cheap. Mixing and mastering it is not cheap. Paying the fees to get it out on Amazon/iTunes/etc is not cheap. Even if we do almost all the recording ourselves, we are still talking a good amount for a basic release. The more money we can raise, though the better quality of a recording we can give you! Imagine if Born Yesterday sounded more professional. That's what we envision for next time, but to do it, we need your help!

So support us!

A lot of people I talk to about the cost of albums and why they should support a band, say back, "well I have expenses." But just think about buying the Born Yesterday reissue for $4.99 the next time you are about to plop down the same amount of money at Starbucks, on iTunes for really bad pop music like Lady GaGa, or at Target/Fred Meyer/insert other store here when you see that bargain DVD copy of Death Wish III that you just have to have for just $5.

Now I'm not saying it's bad to spend $5 on any of those things. All I'm saying is the truth is we all spend $5 willy-nilly all the time, when we could support independent artists who want to put out a better product for their next release and who are putting out something honest, authentic, and personal, like an Otisburg release will be. The truth is to recoup costs on the release, we should be charging more like $20 per copy. But we don't, because we believe in what we are releasing. That's why we put it out with a free digital download and we take the hit in costs and time ourselves.

For the next release, we'll probably do the same thing we did on Born Yesterday and also still offer free stuff for everyone. It's more important to us to give the gift of music and art to the world. But we could also, if we get some support, sell copies on vinyl and do other great things which will make it sound better, be more fun, and be more collectible. In other words, we could give our music the value it really deserves. So consider just $5 for the Born Yesterday EP or getting a hold of some merch.

Donate
Last you can donate to us. For details on this, if that's something you're interested in, just email Steve or me at steve at otisburg.net or scott at otisburg.net.

Finally, thank you. We appreciate it every time you simply listen to one of our songs, and we love what we do. And by the way, for the next release, whatever form it takes, we are more excited than ever about Otisburg! Watch this space for more updates as that develops.